In Newtown Sunday, Church Attendance Was High and U.S. Flags Were Raised

NEWTOWN — — There was a larger than usual crowd at the Christ the King Lutheran Church, and church parking lots were generally full. But a good turnout is to be expected on the Sunday before Christmas.

Pastor Rob Morris couldn't say whether the tragedy drew more people to the service, but it clearly heightened the emotion.

"There's been a lot of weeping inside that sanctuary," Morris said after the service, "from the pews and from the front."

Morris, 32, joined the church in January and became its fully ordained minister in late August. He conducted two funeral services for first-graders last week — and he and his wife have a 6-year-old son themselves, along with another boy who's 3.

"That makes a huge difference," Morris said, in connecting with families. For himself personally, "emotions have broke hundreds of times, but I haven't felt near a breaking point."

Other than his sermon, which was directly about the tragedy, outwardly the service might have looked like any other, Morris said. And that's the point.

"Part of the gift of the service is that we worship a God that is unchanging," he said. "So with our faith rooted to that, our faith and hope are exactly the same. It's just that our feelings in the midst of everything are different."

That struggle between normalcy and exceptional times was reflected across town in a ritual of a different kind. As Morris spoke Sunday, the flag on the huge, landmark flagpole in the middle of town was raised back to full staff. President Barack Obama and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had ordered that flags return to their usual position.

But elsewhere in town, American flags remained at half-staff through most of the afternoon — at the police department, at the war memorial, in a park, at businesses such as Danbury Savings Bank and at Edmond Town Hall, the historic building that's the heart of town but no longer holds municipal offices.

"I'm leaving that alone until I get an order to raise it," said Tom Mahoney, building administrator and theater manager at Edmond, which shows movies and holds public gatherings. Townspeople and visitors were still leaving flowers, notes and teddy bears at memorials in front of the building.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's where it should be for a while," Mahoney said of the flag's half-staff position.

By late afternoon, the police department raised its flag, a supervisor said, but it was not clear about the other public buildings.

Similarly, for his sermon Sunday, Morris reflected on whether the community can "just pick up where we left off."

Clearly not, it might seem.

"And yet, in a very real sense, the answer is yes," Morris said, according to a written copy of the sermon that he provided. "Because the truth that upheld us and sustained us 10 days ago is the same truth that upheld us and sustained us last Friday and the same truth that upholds and sustains us now."

The Advent season, Morris said, "has always been a time of somber reflection and joyful anticipation."

Morris, who was joined by three church officials speaking about the crisis, said having people directly affected in the congregation makes the message more visceral. "It's for moments like these that you try to be able to give witness to the certain hope that we have," he said. "For me, it would have been harder to be in North Dakota."